FIA WEC 2017 - 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: Pole position press conference

At the post-qualifying press conference, Andre Lotterer (leftmost in picture above) was characteristically humble in his thoughts on qualifying and being at Spa.

Lotterer: (#1 Porsche 919 Hybrid - LMP1 pole position) "It was good, it's quite important personally for me; when you join a team it's important to have good results. I've had good stuff in the past but you set the counter to zero and you have to restart so it was great for me today. Thanks to Neel for a stellar lap. I'm a bit on the conservative side, still building up speed. It was quite impressive, actually faster than I drove here in an F1 car (laughter) it's awesome to go around this track in these cars, quite a lot of fun. The job is done for today and the big one is tomorrow. "

Alex Lynn (fourth from left) was frustrated by the red flag but still managed, with the help of Pierre Thirlet (third from left) to put the car on class pole.

Alex Lynn: (#26 G-Drive Oreca 07 - Gibson - LMP2 ) "It was quite a difficult session for everyone with the red flag early on, I had just started my lap. I had a bit of trouble as well with the ByKolles car but I'm happy to be in pole position. During the week I've been focusing very much on consistency because we didn't get the result we wanted at Silverstone and we have been working on making sure we will finish and hopefully get the job done. "

Sam Bird (fifth from left) was very complementary about the handling of the Ferrari 488 and was keen to give credit to his race engineers for the pace of the car and GTE Pro pole position.

Sam Bird (#71 Ferrari 488 GTE - GTE Pro) "Davide (Rigon) will take the start so if we don't win, I get to blame him (laughter) but we are starting in the right place that's for sure. Ferrari have done an amazing job bouncing back from a difficult Silverstone and giving us honestly a fantastic car. That's the best Ferrari I've ever driven on a wet circuit so far. It really felt hooked up. It's not normal as well that you improve on your second lap which meant that I had a little bit more in the tank. I made a mistake, or ran out of talent in the final sector of the first lap so there was a little bit more, but Davide did a scintillating lap."

Paul Dalla-Lana (far right) was equally keen to play-down his role in their GTE Am pole position.

Paul Dalla-Lana (#98 Aston Martin Vantage - GTE Am) "Just let me say, it's nice to be able to hand it over to Pedro (Lamy) and let him bring it home.  I wasn't super happy with my own performance but occasionally you get saved and that's what happened here. It does look like it's going to be a really tight race between ourselves, Porsche and Ferrari, there is just a small gap now on average. It's going to be really interesting."

Dave DAVIES

FIA WEC 2017 - 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: Qualifying

WEC Qualifying started on time at 14:50 with the GTE session. 

In the first flying laps Christensen in #92 Porsche was quickest with a lap of 2:17.185 but very soon Calado in the #51 Ferrari set the top time 2:16.020 but not for long as Davide Rigon in Ferrari #71 set a time of 2:14.938.

The #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari had lap 3 deleted due to track limit violation. This was to be a common theme in both qualifying sessions. In GTE Am Cairoli in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche set an early time of 2:16.323 which was fastest in GTE Am at that point. at 5 past the hour Aston #98 & Porsche #86 had laps deleted for track use abuse at Eau Rouge knocking out a quick lap by Lamy. Similarly in GTE Pro Mucke in the Ford GT #66 had its fastest overall has lap deleted. Not to be left out, the Clearwater Racing Ferrari #61 also had 2 laps deleted for track limit abuse.

First of the quick 2 lap averages in GTE Pro was the #67 Ford GT (2:15.565) which was soon displaced by the #71 AF Corse Ferrari (2:15.017). In GTE Am it was the Porsche #77 with fastest average for a while (2:19.065) but it was ultimately the #98 Aston Martin of Lamy and Dalla-Lana that ended up with the pole time of 2:18.659. It must be said that during the session it was very hard to keep track of all the positions as laps were repeatedly deleted due to track limits violations. 

The LMP session started and just as the first flying laps were being completed, Petrov put the Manor #25 into the tyres at Turn 9 (Bruxelles) bringing about a red flag. This seriously messed-up the majority of the LMP competitors who were on quick laps at that point.

At 15:25 the session was retarted and clock resumed counting down but of course there had been 5 minutes lost with aborted flying laps that had to be re-done. Jani in Porsche #1 set a time of 1:53.756 just as the Porsche #2 of Hartley ran off the track at the Bus Stop chicane (T18-19).

Fastest in LMP2 at that stage was Beche in #13 Vaillante Rebellion. Sarrazin then was fastest overall with a time of 1:53.658 in Toyota #9. There was then an announcement of 9 cars under investigation for speeding under the red flag 34/26/28/9/35/7/31/4/37.

At 15:49 Kraihamer in the ByKolles Enso #4 had a spin at turn 19 in front of #7 Toyota. Shortly after that the Porsche #1 set an average time of 1:54.097 which stood until the chequered flag, giving Neel Jani his 15th pole position in the FIA WEC.  At 15:52 The fastest 2 lap average in LMP2 was set by the #35 Signatech Alpine, only to have a lap deleted. It was in the end the #26 G-Drive of Pierre Thiriet and Alex Lynn fastest average with a 2:02.601.

Weather : Cloudy

Wind : 296° - 3.2

Air : 12.1 °C

Humidity : 75%

Track temp : 13.3 °C

Pressure : 968.5 hPa


Qualifying results LMP
Qualifying results GTE

Dave DAVIES

FIA WEC 2017 - 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: Friday Free Practice 3

There was still no rain in the morning although there was quite a bit of fog in the Ardennes on the drive into the circuit. By the start of free practice 3 the mist had gone but the overcast sky remained.

After the Porsche Carrera Cup practice session there was a certain amount of repair work to be done to circuit barriers at Eau Rouge which delayed the start of FP3 from 10:25 until 10:45

Chandhok in the Tockwith Motorsports Ligier #34 was first out of pit exit but soon overtaken by Jani in Porsche #1. All cars were on track by 10:47. The first flying lap for Nakajima in Toyota #8 (1:55.233) was quicker than last year's pole time (1:55.793). Quickest in LMP2 at 10:50 was Mathias Beche in the Vaillante Rebellion #13 who posted the fastest thus far of the weekend in class (2:01.970). At 10:55 Fred Makowiecki in #91 Porsche also posted the quickest time of the event so far in GTE Pro with a lap of 2:16.123.

Lamy in #98 Aston Martin was quickest thus far in the session in GTE Am at 11:00 with a time not quite as quick as yesterday 2:16.603, but five minutes later Cairoli in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche dislodged the Aston from the top spot in class with a time of 2:15.893 which was also faster than the best GTE Pro time at that point. At 11:02 Pla in Ford GT #66 displaced the time of the Porsche #91 at the top of GTE Pro with a lap of 2:15.981. 

Priaulx had a minor off-track excursion in #67 at Les Combes but no harm done. At the same time Senna in the #31 Vaillante Rebellion returned to the pits carring a load of grass that it had picked up somewhere on the circuit. Alex Lynn in the G-Drive #26 displaced the #13 from the top of LMP2 with a time of 2:01.708 at 11:12. Toyota seemed to be dominating FP3, occupying the top 3 places in LMP1 ahead of the Porsche #1 and #2 for almost the entire session.

From 11:17 until 11:20 there was a full course yellow (FCY) for debris removal at turn 13 (Fagnes), we guess that it might have been either bits of the #31 Vaillante Rebellion which spent 12 minutes in the pits before rejoining, or as a result of an incident between #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca and #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari. Davide Rigon in the AF Corse Ferrari #71 recorded the top time in GTE Pro at 11:28 with a lap of 2:15.100, displacing the #66 Ford GT.

At 11:31 Rossiter in the #4 ByKolles Enso did the fastest lap for that car (2:03.936) then improved that to 2:03.886 (11th overall).

With a few minutes remaining in the session there was a black and white driving standards flag shown to the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari, #36 Signatech Alpine and #71 AF Corse Ferrari for persistent track limits abuse. Pier Guidi improved the best time #51 AF Corse Ferrari to 2:14.904, fastest in GTE Pro with just 5 minutes on the clock. G-Drive remained quickest in LMP2 thanks to that lap of Alex Lynn ahead of the #13 Valliante Rebellion and #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca. 

The #31 Vaillante Rebellion was reported to stewards for unsafe release at a pit stop.

The #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca was reported to stewards for crossing the pit entry white line.

Free Practice 3 results


Dave Davies.